


Cut From the Same Metal

by diogenku



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Spoilers, The Frozen Wilds DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 16:58:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17328911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diogenku/pseuds/diogenku
Summary: Aloy's having some trouble sorting out her feelings about Ourea.(One-shot, only lightly implied shipping)





	Cut From the Same Metal

**Author's Note:**

> For a Fanfic Friday prompt fill--the prompt being 'Frost'. Although I normally headcanon Aloy as aro/ace, this just sort of popped into my head. Full disclosure, I haven't gotten this far in the DLC yet, but I did watch the cutscenes, so that'll do.

The frozen wilds were beautiful. 

This was not under debate. However, at that moment, if you would have asked Aloy if she thought her surroundings were beautiful, you’d probably get a dirty look and a dismissive comment, because at the moment her fingers were chilled to the bone while she climbed a cliff, trying to pick out the faded yellow markings on the rock left by past travelers and hoping she wasn’t going to plunge to an icy death. 

She was still recovering from clearing out a bandit camp, one of the suggestions from Ourea to impress the Werak leader. Finally coming to an icy outcropping she could rest on, she hoisted herself to the edge, grabbing her waterskin and taking a long draught of the cold liquid, trying not to shiver as she did so. Cold be damned, she had worked hard enough to take a drink. Thankfully, she didn’t have that much sweat to worry about freezing. 

Her hands, though, ached from it. Aloy rubbed them together, sticking them inside her leather top for warmth, the feeling coming back in pinpricks. Finally satisfied, Aloy looked out at the sunrise again, and soaked it in. 

The morning was beautiful, the horizon all pinks and golds as the first sliver of sun peaked over the burning mountain in the distance, and Aloy frowned. She hoped whatever Ourea was planning would help get the Banuk out of danger and figure out what this ‘Daemon’ was up to. Aloy felt a sliver of familiarity when she thought of her; strangers they were, yes, but Ourea had the same curious drive as she did, even though Aloy knew a little more about the world than the other woman. That wasn’t her fault, and Aloy didn’t fault her for making sense of the ‘spirit’ in the context of her religion. After all, she’d only barely begun to grasp what The Metal Devil might be, that her people’s Goddess was just a machine. 

“I still don’t really understand it,” she said to herself. It was so frustrating, feeling like the truth was dangling in front of her, and yet she wasn’t able to grasp it. 

After a deep sigh, Aloy continued on, heading towards the Werak Chieftain, to throw down a gauntlet.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me you an Aratak were siblings?” 

This had just gotten more complicated than Aloy had anticipated. The Chieftain had stormed off, leaving Aloy and Ourea in the darkness, surrounded by snowfall. Aloy didn’t really know why the breach of trust bothered her so; she barely knew the woman, all things considered, but somehow the knowledge that Ourea hadn’t wanted to disclose their relationship stung a little more than it should have. 

“I thought I wouldn’t have to. I’m surprised Aratak brought it up in front of a stranger. He must be very angry...” Ourea said. Somehow, that soothed the pain a little. Obviously there was something Aloy didn’t know, but that was hardly new for her. “I’m not always the best judge of--” 

“People?” Aloy supplied, a little bitterly. 

Unbothered, Ourea continued. “I prefer the company of spirits. Or simply my own.” 

Something about that statement, too, bothered Aloy. The woman felt more distant than she had when she was speaking desperately to a mechanical voice in her retreat. 

“I didn’t want you to think of this as some sort of family squabble. It’s...much more important than that,” Ourea supplied. Aloy put her hands on her hips. 

“Fine.” Aloy said. “I don’t care who’s related to who. I want to know what’s inside Thunder’s Drum...the spirit, the Daemon, how it all connects to the machines. And if you’re going to be there, I need you to be honest with me.” 

Okay, that hadn’t been quite what Aloy had intended on saying, but it was true nonetheless. 

“I want to be there too. I underestimated the both of you...and I won’t make that mistake again.” 

Something about the conversation left a bad flavor in Aloy’s mouth, but she pushed it aside, and headed towards the Fostfigures. 

She had a trial to win.

 

Thunder’s Drum might have awaited after the trial was over, but Aloy’s muscles burned with fatigue and injuries after her fight with the Frostclaws, and she wasn’t about to risk going and getting herself killed inside the mountain. She insisted she have a night to prepare inside the village, and since she had beaten Aratak in the challenge, her request was taken as, well, more of a demand. So she received a hut to take shelter in and a bed with furs to sleep in. 

Not that she could. Even after the sun was down and her stomach was filled, she could only stare up at the ceiling of the tent and think. 

Something was still bothering her about the conversation they had had before the trial, and even the way Ourea looked at her after she had won seemed frostier than it had before. It ate at her, and she wasn’t sure why. 

She heard a rustling, the hut’s front flap being pushed aside, and Aloy sat up, wrapping the furs tighter around her. It was Ourea, looking somewhat rougher than when she had seen her last. Aloy relaxed, but somehow still felt her anxiety jump into her throat. 

“Ourea, is something wrong?” 

The other woman shook her head. “No, nothing’s...nothing’s wrong, Aratak and the others are fine.” 

Aloy tilted her head. “That doesn’t say anything about you, though.” 

Ourea sighed, sitting on the floor, and Aloy turned to give her her full attention. “You’re right,” she said. “I feel as though I owe you an apology. A genuine one, this time.” 

“I guess we did sort of leave off on the wrong foot, didn’t we?” Aloy said. “I shouldn’t have reacted that way. It seems like it’s not something that’s really brought up to outlanders--” 

“No, no, don’t make excuses for me, Aloy. You were right before. If we were going to go into this together, I should have been completely honest with you from the start.” She said. 

Aloy shrugged. “I mean, yes. I think I probably would’ve preferred that. I don’t know why...I felt so betrayed, honestly.” 

“I did get that sense,” Ourea said. “But I wouldn’t discount your own feelings. I felt a bond between us, up when we were speaking with the Spirit. You and I are cut from a similar metal, I think.” 

Aloy looked at the hut’s wall, avoiding Ourea’s gaze. “Still...” 

“It’s only natural to feel strongly when you feel like you’ve been betrayed by someone close.” 

Aloy blinked, looking at Ourea and seeing vulnerability in the woman’s eyes where there had only been cold steel before. “Do you think of me that way?” Aloy asked, quietly. 

“I won’t deny there’s something,” she said, sitting on the bed beside her. Aloy felt her face flush. 

“I want...I want to be with you, when we figure out what’s going on with the, erm, Spirit and the Daemon...I want us to fix this, together.” Aloy said, and found that she truly, honestly meant it. 

“I will be,” Ourea smiled, knowingly.


End file.
